Coffee grounds & shredded paper compost/worm farm experiment. Six months in a washing machine barrel
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- I enjoy doing long term experiments with my worms, and to see how different items can break down into nice products for the garden! Here, I make use of an old stainless steel washing machine barrel and waste products from two businesses across the road from my shop!
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I’m impressed ,no bugs
Thanks Michele 😊👍
Very interesting. The washing machine barrel is perfect for that. Interesting experiment and great addition to your regular compost bins. In the beginning I thought you said you were going to put some "cottontails" on the top. I misheard, "cotton towels." Whew, glad all bunnies are safe.
🤣🤣
Thanks for watching SJ
I'm going to try a few variations of this experiment to introduce more oxygen, at some stage!
I thought the same thing!
Great experiment. I have a wealth of both coffee grounds and shredded paper. Now I know how to do it. 😊
Thanks Amy - your worms will love you! 😊
You’re very lucky, I have to scrounge around for mine 😉 Great idea using the old washing machine barrel. Thank you I really enjoyed your video.
I'm thinking that once you've filled the container, you could screw a lid to top and lay the barrels on their sides. Once a week or so, you can roll them around a bit to aerate the mix. Seal the hole at the bottom too as the worms will make their way through the little holes in the barrel. I'd love to see you try this experiment since you have so many barrels 😁😁
Haha - Roll out the barrels, we'll have a barrel of fun! 🎵
Great video. Fantastic findings. Helps to think through what to do with shredded paper. I’m already using coffee grounds…great to hear that acidity isn’t an issue…
Thanks for watching! 👍😊
Another great experiment
I do enjoy experimenting Demetra! Perhaps I was a mad scientist in a previous life! 🤣
Awesome experiment, lovely video and appreciate sharing. Towel great idea.
Thanks for watching Leah! 😊
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your experiments w/all of us. 👍🏼
Thanks for watching Janet! 😊👍
Perfect timing for me! Throwing out dead washer. Had idea to use tub to compost but didn't know how. 3 ingredients n time is amazing. God is good! Gonna do this but attach a lid n roll it around a few times. But pvc pipe with holes sounds like less energy for me 🤔 i have choices!
Ty for sharing this experience and providing solutions! Happiness 😊
Excellent! 😊
Thank you. This is inspiring. I liked that ita all on one video from start to finish.
Thanks for watching Neela! 😊
Watching again as I have acquired some coffee grounds
Such a great turn out! Cool experiment 🤠
Thanks May! 👍😊😎
If I could make a suggestion if you have some old plastic piping you could still holes in it put it through the center of the barrel and multiply your oxegenation faxtor quite a bit.
Exactly what I've been planning Michael! Great mind think alike! 😉😁
That’s an excellent idea 👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks mate very informative
Glad you enjoyed it! 👍😊
Nice experiment. I know now that I can compost in a small area. Thanks
Yep, composting doesn't need to be a large setup! 😊
Wow how cool! I appreciate seeing how much it shrinks and see how well the waste is converted. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks LP. Yes it certainly condensed a lot!
I heard old "cottontails" and that was quite alarming! Poor bunnies!
Hahaha 🐰🐰🐰
I guess it's pretty off topic but do anyone know a good site to watch newly released tv shows online ?
@Crosby Tristen Try FlixZone. You can find it by googling :)
great experiment. thank you.
Thanks Nèstor 😊👍
Great experiment! I plan on checking with my local coffee shops for their ground coffee beans. I need my bin to HEAT UP!
Most coffee shops are grateful for someone to take their waste and recycle it! Good on you! Thanks for watching😊
great test, I'm going to try this with a 55gal drum (Plastic) with a PVC tube in middle with holes. Should speed up composting a great deal. 4 or 5 of them and I'll be set up.
Excellent Clarence, yes good aeration will really help the process! 👍😀
Ugh, but I *LOVE* chocolate ripple!!! 🤤
Haha, I'm a bit of a fan too! 😀👌
great great experiment!!!
Thankyou, glad you enjoyed it! 😊
I use pine wood shavings/rabbit manure with coffee grounds it makes grate worm food
Yep, that sounds like a good mix Paige! 👍😊
Yes the worms love it and I just got a great source of horse manure and wood shavings and mix that with coffee.
@@paigegough6929 I haven't tried any form of wood shavings yet - it's on my 'to do' list!!
It takes a little while but the coffee really speeds it up.
Thank you for your Video, very interesting experiment
Thanks Melissa! 😊
It’s full of castings. That’s why it’s so moist and resembles heavily of fudge
I know the garden loved it!! Thanks for watching 😊👍
chocolate ripple cake yum!
😊🤣👍
Thanks for sharing. I was just thinking of doing something similar, and this confirmed my thoughts about lack of aeration. In my tumbler I don't have any issues with aeration, so I don't have the anaerobic conditions that you got (unless I forget to spin it!), but I would have thought the holes in the washing machine drum would have helped more with getting aeration into the center. I wonder if the same style (holes on outside and bottom) would work at 1/2 the diameter (perhaps too narrow for the temp to get high)?
Yeah Josh, you do need the bulk to get the temp up! I'd like to try this again and try a long drill bit plunged into the centre a few times to see if that make a difference!
Great video but I'm going to use cover crops although I do have access to paper and grounds. I've used them before and had a very successful garden. I just poured out the grounds on my beds and dug them in. For me, there's enough to do in the garden without having to make compost. Especially when you can grow green manure and have it till the soil too.
I agree Tom, simply digging the grounds in is a very easy option! This was more an experiment just to see what happens! Thanks for watching 😊
That barrel looks like it would work perfectly as a Johnson Sue bioreactor. You could emulate their design and put erration points and just keep it covered over all? You already have erration points throughout the barrel so up top going throughout the entirety of the volume from top to bottom would definitely do the work
Yeah, I did look into that once and it would probably work quite well. Alas, I don't have the room or time to experiment at this stage. Thanks for watching 😊
good video you should try agi pipe in middle I guess the holes would have to big enough to let the air in.
Yeah, good idea! I'll get back to some worm & compost tests at some stage! 😊
Thanks for the info very interesting
Thanks for watching! 😊
Awesome youtube channel.
would love to see a test on salty snack foods. (maybe different experiment sites based on level of saltyness)
Salt can certainly be an issue for the worms and yes, I have some comparison tests planned! 👍
How much sunlight did this get per day? And do you think this experiment would work in a compost bin? Thanks
Probably from late morning to mid arvo - so a good 4 or 5 hours of sun I'd say. I'm sure it would still work in a compost bin, but you need to be aware of oxygen requirements, and the worms need access of course. I'm thinking of a follow up version where the layers get aerated somehow to see how much difference it makes..
@@TheUltimateRecycler Awesome. Would you keep adding material? Or keep the initial load as a stand alone?
@@aussieallrounder6018 In a normal situation, you could keep adding if you wish. For the experiments to have a clear "result" - I didn't add any more material.
@@TheUltimateRecycler great!! Look forward to it. Cheers
Where did you get the washer barrels? I would like to pick me one up! Maybe like a scrap lot?
I've scrapped out a few washing machines in my time May! Sometimes I have excess and sell them.. 😊
How could the worms can handle the heat? I want to add worms in compost bin but afraid about heating up thanks for the experiment 👍🏼
The worms will keep away if it gets too hot! Compost bins should not have a bottom so that the worms can escape if conditions are unsuitable. Thanks for watching! 😊
@@TheUltimateRecycler I think you mean the bins SHOULD have a bottom so worms can escape if conditions are unsuitable. Right?
@@sj6919 Nope. How can the worms move out of the bin if there's a bottom/base? All my bins are just built straight on the ground so if the bin gets too hot, or conditions are unsuitable, they can burrow down into the natural soil 🙂
This might be part of the issue with my plastic composter, bought using a cut price offer from the council. It has a plastic base and hardly does much at all. The height of the thing means one can't easily turn anything either, so that's a rare event since it means emptying it all out and then returning it again. Interesting you were considering having many tubs along one of the walls. Were I to do that I'd be left nowhere to plant anything ! Gardens at most houses seem too small to put much in.
@@WideCuriosity Thanks for your comment Gary. Yes, the large backyards and gardens of yesterday are disappearing as people subdivide bigger blocks and build more housing!! A shame really - but I can understand it from a financial perspective!
Many commercial composters and worm farms are rather unsuitable for the job in my view!
Wow!
I am wondering what kind of paper you used. I was under the impression that computer paper does not decompose very well
Maybe someone can inform me. Thanks, great video. Havagudun sir.
Basic printer paper seems to decompose very well from my experience. Thanks for watching ED 😊
forbidden chocolate cake lol
Chocolate cake should never be forbidden! 😜🤣
In future when you're composting like this, you could obviously tip it all out and mix it up to get air into it, or alternatively, to save time and effort, get some sort of a metal or wooden rod and make holes in the mix every so often.
Yes for sure. I've even considered using a large drill/auger to introduce oxygen! Thanks for watching👍😊
what;s up with the synthetic carpet in your worm bin?
I like to use woolen blankets or other natural covers, but sometimes I just have old carpet laying around and it's better than nothing to keep the worms cool!
The anaerobic state isnt really a big problem since you only have to deal with it once (when you let it dry out), but putting a pipe in the middle is not much of a hassle either, and if their is someone not confident using just paper, woodchips will do fine creating layers between the paper to negate any worry about clumping etc. And should eliminate any possibility of going anaerobic as their will be no nitrogen (or very little)
There are many ways of creating humus that would surprise some, a concrete pathway (preferably shaded) will create wheelbarrows full in ~1-1.5 years if a 6 inch (could most likely do more) layer of woodchips is placed down, I could produce as much humus as I could possibly have a use for just by doing this, but still make compost because I enjoy it (I dont turn otherwise it wouldn't be worth it)
Thanks Nobody, yep it's well worth experimenting! Pretty much every method will eventually result in nice products for the soil/garden - some just take more time than others! Appreciate your input 👍😊
Much better to keep turning and aerating it,
Most definitely! Just experimenting to see what happens. I'll be trying some similar experiments soon with some aeration options 👍
cool experiment. i think it went aerobic since (apparently) you should use 1 part nitrogen to 2 parts carbon sources by weight rather than volume. abc gardening youtube channel had a guy who had a full collection service for coffee grounds from a bunch of different vendors and swore by sawdust in equal parts. id be fine to be wrong on both counts
I think a nitrogen-carbon mix is important - but lack of oxygen is probably the main reason!
Thanks for your comment Hayden 👍😊
@@TheUltimateRecycler thats a good point. and no dramas, you have some pretty interesting videos so credit where credit is due
Is there a reason you don’t turn your compost?
Yes - for this experiment I wanted to see how well it broke down without disturbing it. I'm planning a similar experiment with more aeration and maybe a comparison with turning as well..
I appreciate your efforts. But I think you've got the whole thing a bit wrong. Your container should be covered so that water does not flood it. That's why you ended up with..what you got.Water, you should only add enough to keep the contents just moist and not submerged in water. I also conclude that you put too much coffee grounds on so little paper..That's what I think.. Again. Thank you for your effort.🥰👍 Slovenia (sLOVEnia)
Thanks for your input Andrej. That's the beauty of experiments - we can see what happens when things are a bit wrong! 😊👍
Looks too wet.
I have a garbage can beside my composter with holes drilled in the bottom only and lid stays on top. No watering and tons of worms and black soil in there, it's more effective than my composter.
Yes, I agree - it's a bit wet. Perhaps I should have kept a lid on it!
Thanks for watching Paul 👍
Ty for your comment! Using holey garbage cans as I am in good supply. 👍🏾
Looks like it needed 3 times the amount of paper
Yeah, more experimenting required I guess! Thanks for watching Robert 👍😊
Be aware that grub worms love coffee grounds too.
Are they the large grubs that can ruin lawns and turn into scarab beetles?
@@TheUltimateRecycler We have really BIG grub worms and the normal sized one.
When we find them we toss them in a bucket of water and drown them.
Some can be 1-1/2" long!
Any grub worms can ruin a lawn.
I believe grub worms also attract moles.
killer container to use
It works very well! 👍 Thanks for watching Sean 😊
I hope the paper doesn't catch fire🤭
So do I!! It does need to be a pretty big pile to generate enough heat for a fire. This size is fine 👍
Not the greatest compost even tho the top looked great, was going to ask if the ph was still slightly acidic but you shut me down quick smart lol.
Haha, I knew it was coming mate! 🤣
I wonder whether the acidity is as spent in espresso coffee grounds as in coffee grounds that have had longer contact with water, such as the more coarsely ground French press and filter coffees.
@@u.synlig Hmmm, a good question! Perhaps a scientific study is required!
@@TheUltimateRecycler There is so much to wonder, and so much to learn!
@@u.synlig I recently used a pH tester to test coffee grounds, they were a perfect 6.5!
sorry your volume is too low
Sorry - that was two years ago. I've upgraded my camera/mic since then.
But your other co trainer had way more worms
Which other container?
7:40 - 7:47 Does anyone know what those white crawling bugs are? I see a lot of them in my garden, and I am worried they might be harmful to my plants. I mostly grow veggies. I have been dying to know but had no luck in figuring it out.
They would be springtails I think JJ. They are good little composters in their own right and won't cause any problems unless in very large numbers 😊
@@TheUltimateRecycler Thank you so so much!!